Why design and user experience matter

Design is the first thing people notice – long before they read a single word about who you are or what you do. Within seconds, visitors decide whether to trust your brand, explore further, or click away. Good design earns that first moment. Good UX and UI earn what comes after it: every click, tap and scroll on the way to where someone is going. Get those right and the friction disappears. Get them wrong and people feel every step.

First impressions happen fast

A widely cited study by Lindgaard and colleagues (Behaviour & Information Technology, 2006) found that people form an opinion about a website in around 0.05 seconds – less time than it takes to blink. Follow-up research from Northumbria University put a finer point on it: 94% of those first impressions are design-related rather than content-related.

If a site or app feels cluttered, dated, or inconsistent, visitors leave before they discover what is on offer. Clean layouts, balanced colour, and intuitive navigation do the opposite – they make people feel confident, comfortable, and curious to see more.

Design builds trust and credibility

The Stanford Web Credibility Project (Fogg et al.) found that around 75% of users judge a company's credibility on its website alone – not the product, not the people, just the look and feel of the site. That sounds harsh, but it makes sense in practice. A strong, consistent design tells visitors you pay attention to the details. And if you take care of the details people can see, they are more likely to trust you with the ones they cannot.

User experience (UX) keeps people engaged

Good UX is what makes a website or app feel effortless. It anticipates what people want and removes the friction between them and the thing they came to do – find a price, book an appointment, complete a purchase, contact a team.

Great UX is rarely noticed; it just works. Poor UX is noticed immediately, because people feel lost, frustrated, or unsure of what to click next. On a website, that translates into bounces and lost enquiries. On an app, it translates into uninstalls and one-star reviews.

User interface (UI) makes it enjoyable

Where UX focuses on function, UI focuses on form – the buttons, icons, spacing, colour, and typography that bring the experience to life. Together they create a sense of flow that keeps people exploring and leaves a lasting impression of your brand.

Strong UI also reinforces accessibility. Considered contrast, legible type, generous tap targets, and clear focus states are not finishing touches – they are what make a product usable for everyone who visits it. They are also a growing legal expectation: WCAG 2.2 underpins both the UK Public Sector Bodies Accessibility Regulations and the European Accessibility Act, which came into force in 2025.

Why this matters even more for apps

On a website, a confused visitor closes a tab. In an app, they delete the icon – and the cost of getting them back is far higher. App users have less patience and higher expectations. They expect fast load times, native-feeling interactions, and a clear path to value within the first session.

Good app design pays attention to onboarding, gestures, offline behaviour, notifications, and the small moments of feedback (a tap, a swipe, a confirmation) that make a product feel polished. Get those right and engagement compounds. Get them wrong and even the strongest feature set will struggle to retain users.

Poor design pushes people away

Adobe's State of Content research found that 38% of users stop engaging with a website if the layout or content feels unattractive. It does not matter how strong the underlying product or service is. If the experience does not look or feel right, people will not stay long enough to find out.

And the impact is not only on first-time visitors. Repeat customers and existing users hold sites and apps to a higher standard over time. Inconsistent patterns, broken behaviours, or sluggish interactions slowly erode the trust you have already worked to build.

How we approach design at HowTech

We start with the people who will actually use the thing. We ask what they are trying to do, what is getting in their way, and what success looks like – for them and for your business. Then we design experiences that are clear, considered, and accessible by default.

We prove them with prototypes and real-world testing before a line of production code is written. That means problems get caught early, when they are cheap to fix. The result is a website or app that does not just look right in a screenshot – it works when it matters.

In summary

Your website or app is often the first and most influential touchpoint a potential customer will ever have with your business. Good design, supported by considered UX and UI, builds trust, communicates quality, and gives people confidence in your brand from the very first second.

It is not just about making something look nice. It is about making it work for the people who use it.

Frequently asked questions